British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'

The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.

"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."